By John Lee. Iraq's Minister of Oil has invited international companies to bid to develop new oil fields, in what is being described as an annex to the Fifth Licensing Round. This round includes 13 exploration fields and sites distributed across the northern, central, and southern provinces. The announcement complements the Ministry's previous declaration in
the safest place for these men is in the trenches. they ve already taken a couple of casualties here in the last week. he breathes heavily you all right? yeah. keep down. there s no time to pause for breath. dima leads the way to better cover. these few logs offer some protection, but it s already packed tight in here. that was even closer. they grab every inch of shelter they can. explosion and when the next distant boom might end in a direct hit, it s hard not to flinch.
that shell hits just a few metres away. dima and my colleague darren conway call us towards the trench. liuba, fast, fast, fast. come on. let s get to that trench. quick. stuart, there s a bunker here. this way. come on, run, run. run. straight to me. come on, this way. down. down, down, down, down. down. get in, get down. that was two russian shells that have just come in. i think it s tank fire landing very close to these positions. it gives you an idea of how exposed it is here. there s absolutely no tree cover.